۱۳۹۲ دی ۱۵, یکشنبه

Pagan-Based Cult of Allah

by Anwar Hekmat

When it is said "If
there is a will, there is a way," what is really meant is there are those
who will always find a way to justify a their "means to an end" - to
rationalize their preconceived ideas - to justify evil, even when done in the
name of good. Having the ability to think is a biological necessity for
survival even when it is faith based belief, even if it is wrong minded and
morally repugnant belief and full of errors, as is the case with the Koran.
Faith is rationalized belief because it cannot depend on evidence; it cannot be
proved. There is no proof for it. And Jihad is justified on faith. Abuse of
women is justified by religious dictum. Believers can and often do find
justification even when faith ideas are predicated on falsehoods and full of
hate and they advocate for conquest and plunder as with the pagan-based cult of
Allah. -- Hank Roth

Islams Pagan Rites

In fact, the pilgrimage
ceremonies of Muslims today are in no way different from what Muhammad's
ancestors and other desert Arabs did hundreds of years before him. Only the
name is changed and the pagan cult has become Islamic rite.

Pre-Islamic Religion and
its Influence on Muhammad

The nomadic desert dwellers
had worshiped a multitude of male and female deities for many centuries before
the Arab Prophet was born. Al-Lat was a goddess widely revered on the Arabian
peninsula. Some scholars maintain that the word al-Lat is possibly derived from
the Babylonian god Allata.

Among the nomadic Arabs,
the word El (or Il) was generally used to designate gods or deities. This is an
old Semitic word which is found in different combinations such as Beth-El in
Hebrew, which means the "house of God." Allah is a contracted form of
al-Ilah. Al is a definite article used with all proper nouns, such as al-Medina
(city) and al-Islam (Islam), and is preserved in English words such as Algeria,
algebra, and so on. The definite article was also affixed before the names of
deities. The ancient Arabs believed that Allah was a male god and therefore the
father of three female deities, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and al-Manat. Hubel was also
the city god of Mecca.

Thus, the word Allah was
not coined by Muhammad. One can find many examples of this proper name in
pre-Islamic literature. This word was used repeatedly among the pagan Arabs,
especially with other combinations.The three daughters of Allah are even
mentioned in the Koran: "Have you thought upon al-Lat and al- Uzza and
al-Manat, the third, the other? Are yours the males and His the females?"
(Koran 53: 19-21)

According to Muslim
chronologists, Allah was the tribal god of the Quraysh, Muhammad's own clan.
But at certain religious ceremonies held in pre-Islamic days, many of the
tribes would call themselves "the family of Allah." In ancient
Arabia, the deity of each tribe was respected according to the social status of
that tribe. When the Quraysh clan became the overlords of Mecca, their god,
Allah, was elevated to a supreme position and equal to the most important
deities of Arabia, such as al- Uzza, al-Lat, and al-Manat.

We have clear proof that
Allah was worshiped in Arabia before the time of Muhammad. Pre-Islamic personal
names often contain the name of Allah as an element.It was the custom among the
Arabs, in order to show their respect to their gods, to name their sons
"the servant" or "the slave" of such and such deity.
Muhammad's grandfather named his sons 'Abd-Allah and 'Abdul-Uzza, the slaves of
Allah and Uzza, respectively, the father and daughter deities of his clan.

'Abd-Allah was Muhammad's
father. He died before his son was born. Muhammad's own cousin, from his
mother's side, was called 'Abd-Allah ben Djahsh (slave of Allah). His brother
was 'Ubayd-Allah (humble servant of Allah). This brother migrated to Abyssinia
as a Muslim, but there he became fascinated by Christianity, and subsequently
repudiated Islam to become a Christian.

Another man whose name was
associated with Allah before the time of Muhammad was 'Abd-Allah ben Djudan, a
Qurayshite notable of the clan Tayn ben Murra; he lived at the end of the sixth
century of our era. He acquired a fortune through the slave trade. 'Umar, the
close associate of the Prophet and the second caliph, had two sons, 'Abd-Allah
and 'Ubayd-Allah, born before Islam.

Thus, Muhammad
universalized Allah as the Supreme Being because this god was the tutelary
deity of his own clan and his own father was named "the slave of
Allah" ('Abd-Allah). STONE WORSHIP, THE KA'ABA, AND PILGRIMAGE

The Ka'aba was the
sanctuary in Mecca where the different pre-Islamic deities were worshiped.Among
the images of the various gods and goddesses, the image of Allah was preserved
alongside those of the female deities mentioned above. The sanctuary of Mecca,
like any other house of god among the Semitic peoples (e.g., Beth-el), was in a
rectangular shape and for this reason the Arabs called it Ka'aba, which is an
Arabic word meaning "cube." Some scholars maintain that the word
means house and they have suggested that it comes from an Ethiopic word meaning
double or two-storied building." But this does not seem to be correct, as
the Arabic meaning of Ka'aba very clearly signifies rectangular.

The different idols were
placed either around the rectangular structure in the open air or inside a
niche (qibla) under the vault. It is believed by some circles that the
rectangular structure was probably constructed after the shape of the typical
nomad's tents. The Ka'aba dates back to the second century c.E.; thus, contrary
to the text of the Koran and Muslim exegetes, it could not have been made by
Abraham. The Old Testament makes no mention of the patriarch traveling to
Arabia, much less building a sanctuary in Mecca! More importantly, there is no
chronological or archeological evidence to prove that Mecca is older than the
first century C.E., and Abraham, if he really existed, probably lived around
1800 B.C.E. The story was apparently fabricated by Muhammad himself to attract
the attention of Jewish Arabs in the early days of his mission to win converts.

In the pre-Islamic period
stones, especially soft and cube-shaped ones, were often considered sacred by
desert Arabs and were venerated as the residences of gods. Nomads living in
cube-shaped tents themselves probably thought the gods, too, would have similar
abodes but of stone.

Among the many places of worship
in Arabia, the Ka'aba was respected more than other sanctuaries because it held
the Black Stone, which the pre-Islamic Arabs believed was given to them by the
deities of the skies to be worshiped. The Black Stone is thought to consist of
hardened lava, or basalt, but it is not easy to determine its real nature as it
has been touched and kissed rapturously by millions of people since it was
placed in the structure. It may have a meteoric origin. Islam has thus
perpetuated the ancient pagan rite of stone worshiping by ordaining the
pilgrimage to the Ka'aba as the fifth pillar of the religion.

Millions of Muslim pilgrims
visit Mecca each year to pay tribute to the Black Stone placed at the east
corner of the structure. Mecca was already in existence in the second century
of our era, and it is recorded as "Mecoraba" by Ptolemy, the famous
astronomer and geographer who flourished in Alexandria about 130 C.E.

From the early Muslim
chronologists, we learn that Qussay, one of Muhammad's early ancestors, developed
a carefully regulated cult for the worshiping of the sanctuary of Ka'aba. He
appointed two of his sons as the supervisors (around 450 C.E.) of the
cult.These two sons were named, 'Abd al-Dar and 'Abd al-Manf, i.e., "the
slave of the house (of the pantheon of Ka'aba)" and "the slave of
Manf" (another stone idol), respectively. A number of stone idols were
placed in Ka'aba, each of which belonged to a different tribe as their tribal
god. The nomadic Arabs would travel each year to Mecca to pay homage to their
clan's deity. The pilgrimage was traditionally made on the last month of the
Arabian calendar, the month of pilgrimage (Dhu-Hajjathe word hajj is perhaps
the Arabic equivalent to the Hebrew word hug meaning to draw around). The early
nomads who visited the sanctuary each year would go around the structure (the
rite is called tawaf) to pay tribute to the deities there.

In the months of pilgrimage
and the month immediately before and after, the Arabs, according to an old
custom, would stop all armed warfare with one another. No blood was to be
spilled during those sacred months to make it safer for all the pilgrims to
travel to Mecca for the ceremonies.In these sacred months, no armed robberies,
ambushes, or vendettas were permitted.

The sanctuary of Mecca was
known as the "harem," literally, the "reserved space"; for
this reason the whole area of Mecca was also considered a sanctified territory.
The word harem was used later for the women's quarters in large palaces, where
usually more than one wife was kept. In this sense, it signified a private
space to which no trespassing was permitted, allocated for women only.

In the month of festival
(or hajj), each pilgrim brought his or her offering for a particular deity and
sacrificed animals to please a particular god. Upon arrival, the devotees
circumambulated the pantheon and then ran between two great stones called Safa
and Marva upon two distant hills, which were believed to be the residences of a
male and female deity.

Another practice in this
festival was the ceremonial abstinences. The pilgrims would stay away from
profanity, irreverence, and sexual intercourse, since each of these practices
is prohibited in the presence of the gods of the pantheon.

The most diverse pagan
tribes of the Arabian Peninsula would take part in the festivities of the
pilgrimage. Since the performing of ceremonies was possible only when there was
peace in the land, and as the Arabs were constantly fighting one another, the
carrying of arms in Mecca during the pilgrimage was forbidden.

All of these ancient pagan
rites survive in Islam today. Each year Muslims from all over the world make
pilgrimages to Mecca during the Arabian month of Dhu- Hajja, and they perform
the same rituals that prevailed several centuries before Islam.

The pilgrims put on a
special white robe, circumambulate the rectangular structure in the middle of
the Sacred Mosque, behead their animals while calling Allah's name, stay away
from sexual intercourse during the ceremonial period, abstain from profane
language, run between the two distant hills of Safa and Marva, and throw
pebbles at the abode of Satan, a rock believed by the heathens to be the
residence of the devil.

In fact, the pilgrimage
ceremonies of Muslims today are in no way different from what Muhammad's
ancestors and other desert Arabs did hundreds of years before him.Only the name
is changed and the pagan cult has become Islamic rite. What Muhammad actually
did was to perpetuate his ancestral customs and make them divine laws for his
followers, calling it Islam.

There is only one
difference: in pre-Islamic days, everyone was allowed to go to Mecca for
pilgrimage pagans, atheists, polytheists, as well as monotheists. Today, no one
but Muslims are permitted in Mecca's sanctuary. And Muhammad's private god
became the deity of all the clans.

Before Muhammad, each tribe
had its own deity, but when they went to Mecca for pilgrimage, they would also
worship, or at least respect, the other prominent gods. The followers of the
goddess al-Lat would pay their tribute to Allah, her father. Those who believed
in al-Uzza, would pay homage to her sister goddess, al-Manat.Relations among
gods were thought to be friendly if the tribes were at peace with one another.
When hostility prevailed, each tribe devoted its attention solely to its
individual deity, ignoring the other members of the pantheon.

This is clearly seen from
the life history of Muhammad's ancestors. As mentioned earlier, his
great-grand- father, Qussay, named his sons after different gods. It is
therefore obvious that at his time Arabian clans of the desert and especially
clans of the towns were on friendly terms.When Muhammad started his preaching
of Islam, his own clan, Quraysh, opposed him.His uncles, cousins, and all of
his kinfolk were against him because he wanted to elevate his god, Allah, above
all the other clan deities.When he saw the great opposition, he took a step
backward and tried to quiet his adversaries by accepting their deities on an
equal footing with his Allah.

That is why some of the
early Muslim chronologists held that first Muhammad agreed to pay homage to the
other deities, especially the three goddesses who were believed to be the
daughters of Allah. But, later, after hostilities had broken out between him
and many of the other Arab clans, including his own, he changed his mind and
insisted upon the superiority of his god, Allah, the god of his father,
'Abd-Allah.

From then on he did not
miss an opportunity to make Allah the supreme lord. He repeatedly affirmed that
there were no other gods except Allah. One of the last chapters of the Koran,
called "Unity" (at-tawhid), reads:

"Say: He is Allah, the
One! Allah, the eternal Besought of all! He begotteth not nor was begotten.And
there is none comparable unto Him." (Koran 112: 1-4)

The point of this sura is
to insist on the fact that his Allah is the only god. Furthermore, he
emphasizes that Allah does not beget children, otherwise the followers of the
three goddesses, sometimes called the daughters of Allah, would also claim the
same privileges as the believers of Islam. Since there is no god comparable to
him, the other pagan gods or goddesses are not in equal standing with Allah.

THE
INFLUENCE OF OTHER RELIGIONS ON THE FORMATION OF ISLAM

The Muslim claim that
before Muhammad the whole Arabian Peninsula was polytheistic and that he, for
the first time, presented a new monotheistic religion in the region is simply
not true. Many centuries before Muhammad, the two great empires that exerted
their never-ending influence in Arabia the Byzantine and Persian were both
monotheistic in their creed. Christianity had penetrated into the north of
Arabia, and Zoroastrianism as well as Manicheism had prevailed in the eastern
and southern parts of the peninsula long before Christianity and Judaism came
to Arabia.Moreover, various Jewish tribes were the residents of Medina and
Khaybar. By Muhammad's time, many of them had business relationships with Syria
to the north and Yemen to the south of Mecca.These people were later destroyed
by Muhammad and their wives and children sold to the other Arab tribes.

A few Sabian inscriptions
of the fourth and fifth centuries C.E. permit historians to conclude that
Sabians believed in Allah as the supreme deity, calling him compassionate and
the lord of heaven and earth, a title which is ubiquitously found in the Koran.
"Above all," says Zwemer, "this tutelary and mediator god was
the supreme deity whom they called Allah.This name occurs very frequently in
pre-Islamic poetry on the inscriptions and in proverbs and personal
names."

For many years before
Islam, the Arabs, though in a sense polytheists, were worshiping one supreme
God, whom they thought was ta'ala (superior) to others. St. Clair-Tisdall says,
"Although polytheism had even in a very early time found an entrance into
Arabia, yet the belief in the one true God had never entirely faded away from
the minds of the people."

But perhaps the most
important document proving the existence of monotheism among the pre-Islamic
Arabs is the text of the Koran itself. The Koran talks about four groups of
people ( Koran 22: 17) who were monotheists and had their own scriptures, viz,
Sabians, Christians, Magians (Zoroastrians), and Jews. Some of the Sabians'
cult was incorporated into the Koran, such as thirty days of fasting, praying
several times a day, and breaking the fast by observing the new moon (fitr). In
fact, Islam and Sabianism are so interrelated that, "When Banu Jadhimah of
Taif and Mecca announced to Khalid (Ben Walid) their conversion to
Muhammadaism, they did so by crying out loud, 'We have become Sabian.'
"madaism, they did so by crying out loud, 'We have become Sabian.'"

Moreover, there are several
hundred Persian words in the Koran which prove the influence of the Iranian cult
in Islam. A great part of the Islamic belief regarding the resurrection and the
hereafter is based on Zoroastrianism. The similarities between some of the
Islamic rites and the Persian customs were so striking that some of Muhammad's
opponents accused him of being taught by a Persian teacher. To this allegation
Muhammad snapped back: "And we know well that they say, 'verily a human
being teaches him.' The language of him at whom they aim is Persian, and this
book (Koran) is clear Arabic speech." (Koran16: 103)

As far as the story of the
Jewish prophets is concerned, the Koran is a poor imitation of the Old
Testament. Muhammad did not know any other language except Arabic. Some
biographers held that he could not read or write even that language correctly
and for this reason he was called ummi, which means unlettered. There are
others who maintain that he was schooled enough to write in his native
vocabulary. He was a merchant; therefore, he must have had some rudimentary
capacity to read and write. One thing, however, is certain: he was unable to
speak Greek or Hebrew, much less read it.

For this reason, he could
not have read the stories of the ancient Jewish personalities in the Old
Testament. He must have heard these tales from the people who were monotheistsnot
necessarily Jews or Christians alone and adapted their ideas of monotheism. The
difference in the accounts of the prophets in the Bible and the Koran proves
that Muhammad's source of information was not the Old Testament; rather he must
have taken these accounts from the common people's hearsay.

Thus, monotheistic tenets
were quite prevalent in Arabia at the time of Muhammad, and he did not present
something unknown or extraordinary as a cult on the peninsula. "More
fascinating and more tangible are the indications that in the last few
pre-Islamic centuries, an Arabian monotheism developed."

Besides these religious
influences on Muhammad, he may also have come into conflict with the Hanifs,
monotheistic Arabs who rejected all of the other Arabian deities associated
with Allah. The Hanifs believed in one supreme God, but they also practiced an
ancient cult.Among the features of this cult were regular pilgrimages to Mecca,
sacrifice of animals to the Lord of the Ka'aba, and a belief in doomsday and
the hereafter. It is possible that the presence of Christianity and Judaism
provided the necessary requirements and conditions for the development of such
a faith. The word hanif may be related to a Hebrew term meaning "to
conceal, to pretend, to lie." Apparently, it is a Syriac word meaning
"heathen" or "impiety."

It is not unreasonable to
suppose that these people were probably acquainted with Jewish and Christian
tenets, for the Hanifs claimed they were promoting the religion of Abraham.
While believing in one God, they also maintained and preserved their old
customs, which were mostly pagan rites.For this reason they were called Hanifs,
or "heathens," because they could or would not renounce their
ancestral beliefs.

The early history of Islam
shows that there were at least four Hanifs among the relatives and close
friends of Muhammad. One who had a great influence upon Muhammad before he
started his preaching of the new faith was Zayd ben 'Amir. It is narrated from
Ibn Hisham (who reported from Ibn Ishaq) that Zayd's uncle persecuted him
because he had denied his ancestral religion. He, therefore, left Mecca and
traveled around the neighboring towns. He eventually came back and resided in
the cave of Hara near Mecca.

It is a well-known fact
that Muhammad was a regular visitor to the cave, and sometimes he would stay
there for days. There is no doubt that Zayd played an important role in shaping
Muhammad's mind as he was developing his new faith. Muhammad always respected
Zayd, and later even called him his precursor. The word Islam was used by Zayd
for the first time, and there are many verses in the Koran that are merely a
repetition of what Zayd had said earlier. For example this verse: "Lo!
Religion with Allah is Islam (i.e., to surrender to Allah's will)." (Koran
3: 19)

Zayd died five years before
Muhammad made his prophetic call. It is possible that Muhammad was waiting for
his teacher to pass away before he began preaching these new ideas as his own.
Apparently, Muhammad's association with the Hanifs, especially Zayd and Nufel
ben Warqa (his wife's cousin), made the people of Mecca angry against him and
they accused him of being a Hanif. It was against such allegations that
Muhammad defended himself and the Hanifs. The Koran clearly explains Muhammad's
tendencies toward Hanifs and his own beliefs when he states: "And (O
Muhammad) set thy purpose resolutely for religion as a Hanif and be not
polytheist." (Koran 10: 105)

Muhammad claimed that
Abraham was a Hanif: "Lo! Abraham was ... obedient to Allah, by nature a
Hanif, and he was not a polytheist." (Koran 16: 120) According to the
Koranic verse, the term "Hanif" is equated with monotheist, and so
Abraham was also a monotheist. Moreover, Hanif is taken to mean one who is
obedient to Allah, a submissive believer.There are many verses in the Koran in
which Muhammad repudiates the idea that a Hanif is a pagan or a heathen. For
example, he tells his adversaries that Abraham was a Hanif, therefore a Muslim.
(Koran 2: 130-32) In another passage, he denies that Abraham was a Jew: "
Abraham was not a Jew, not yet a Christian; but he was Hanifian and submissive,
he was not of the idolators." (3: 67)

In the light of the above,
it is perfectly clear that Muhammad, through a close association with the
Hanifs of Mecca, the most distinguished among whom were his relatives, became
acquainted with their beliefs, which were called Islam. He became an ardent devotee
of the new religion and, when fully convinced, started to act as a promulgator
of Islam, which was originated by the Hanifs as a mixture of Judaism,
Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, and, last but not least, ancient Arab
paganism.

It is interesting to note
that not only his adversaries, but his ardent followers and even his close
friends, pointed out to him on many occasions the inconsistencies in his
scriptures. It was to impugn his opponents' accurate criticisms that he came up
with a verse like, "This is a clear Arabic Koran with no crookedness in
it." (Koran 39:28; see also 18:1; 41:3) And again on another occasion, he
tried to quiet his critics when he said: "But those in whose heart is
doubt pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking (to cause) dissension
by seeking to explain it. None knoweth its explanation save Allah." (Koran
3: 7)

Anwar Hekmat

The above has been
excerpted from the Introduction to "Women and the Koran: The Status of
Women in Islam" by Anwar Hekmat, published by Prometheus Books - 1997, are
in accordance the Fair Use Doctrine per Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright
Law.

"Before the existence
of Islam, there were at least 360 different pagan idols that were worshipped
among the pre-Islamic Arab world. The highest of these pagan gods was the moon
god who was given many names, depending on the historical timeline and
region." (Islam Exposed)

"The teachings of
Islam claim that Mohammad smashed all the pagan idols and destroyed idol
worship, however, what information isn't offered, is the fact that Mohammad
smashed all but one pagan idol, which was the moon god (Allah). We know for a
fact that the moon god idol was not destroyed because it was unearthed in the
1950's by "Sir Leonard Woolley and is displayed in a British Museum this
very day!" (ibid)